When our staff team visited Rachel’s home for an assessment to see if she’d be a good fit for the program, she and her father were both present, and they were grateful for the potential opportunity for Rachel to join Neema. And since there was an opening in the program, even though school had already started, our team told them that Rachel could join. She came accompanied by her father and was admitted to school.

But later that day, Rachel shared with our staff that she did not want to stay at Neema because she had been forced to join by her father. When they asked her why she didn’t tell our staff that when they went for the assessment, she said that she was afraid her father would beat her up. It became clear that her father wanted her to join Neema just because it’s free, and it would be three years he wouldn’t have to support her. But what Rachel really wanted was to go back to traditional school.

Rachel shared that she’d been staying with her stepmother whom she often disagrees with. And Rachel’s father is polygamous and also has another wife whom Rachel was staying with until she dropped out of school. She said that she wanted to be with her mother, and that she would have snuck away if she had transport money. However, her mother now lives very far away.

Because life has been difficult for her, Rachel said she would rather get married than go back to living with her step families. Marriage brings status and financial gain into a girl’s family. And while the legal marriage age in Kenya is 18, 23% of girls are married before that age, sometimes against their will (Educating Adolescents Around the Globe). Others, like Rachel, think about it as a way to escape unhealthy households.

Yes, Neema is a safe haven and provides its students with an opportunity for a new life. But we also want to make sure we’re welcoming students who really think of it as a place where, through hard work, their lives will be transformed. Welcoming students against their will jeopardizes not only these students’ own transformation but the other students’ as well. In addition, as an organization that empowers women, we want to make sure that we listen to the voices of these women and respect their choices. Our team will follow up with Rachel regularly; and if Neema becomes the right place for her to be in the future, we will welcome her wholeheartedly.

Teenage Marriage: An Escape from Unhealthy Homes